Am I wrong for being skeptical about the removal of suction blocks/tackles/etc.?

[poopoop]

I know multiple sites are saying it's gone from the game this year, but we heard the same thing last year too.

IGN's first preview on NCAA 11:

Quote:

No longer will your man get "sucked" into the player with the ball. Now, you'll actually have to line up the tackle properly and hope that the offensive player doesn't see it coming. ---- Locomotion is perhaps the simplest of all of the additions for the new game. In layman's terms, it makes every animation in the game smoother. More accurately, it makes the transitions between the animations more seamless and it gives players more realistic physical behaviors on the field

IGN's preview on NCAA 12:

Quote:

Rather than shuffling players around into the proper tackling position, you can now take down your opponents from any angle and it feels extremely natural. --- With the new collision based tackling system the days of players suctioning into position to make a tackle are over.

Same thing can be seen if you look at OS' previews of the two games.

OS on NCAA football 11:

Quote:

This locomotion engine translates to defense as well by allowing users more control of their respective player. It also seems to have eliminated the magnetic attraction to blockers that has plagued EA football games for years.

OS on NCAA football 12:

Quote:

As far as tackling and other physics-related contact goes, the developers are trying their hardest to remove the much-maligned "suction" from the game. This year's attempt to remedy the issue deals with a change to the physics engine so that no animation begins until the players actually collide with each other. The want to change and eliminate "suction" is genuine, but the change is still a work in progress. I still did see some suctioning on certain tackles, but it was far less noticeable.

I'm not saying this to target OS or IGN, more to target EA for selling empty promises. I don't see how two straight years a selling point can be that they removed the suction from the game. Last year locomotion was supposed to be the savior, now it's the new tackling system.

[berad88]

You are right to be skeptical. I am too. I doubt it will be perfect but I do expect it to be improved and improvement is a postive step.

[PaperBoyx703]

You have a right to feel any type of way. Given the past developments in the past 3 years. But i think the video(gameplay) we have seen didnt indicate very noticeable suction and it was still a work in progress but still looked pretty darn good.

[hampshire2012]

There is a big difference between what reviewers say and what developers say.

Last year there wasn't nearly as much emphasis from EA about eliminating suction, this year, we get "NO MORE SUCTION BLOCKING" in capital letters in one of the blogs. While I feel it can't fully be removed from a motion-capture based engine, I think and hope it will be far less prevalent than last year.

[Charleston_Tiger]

Man you just rained on my parade... expectations are now back down.

[J-Unit40]

There will always be a little bit of suction with this engine. I don't think there is anyway around it honestly.

Someone stated it yesterday, but even the great NBA2K11 has some suction/warping involved. If it is reduced from previous years of NCAA's, then I will be pleased.

[poopoop]

Quote: Originally Posted by hampshire2012

There is a big difference between what reviewers say and what developers say. Last year there wasn't nearly as much emphasis from EA about eliminating suction, this year, we get "NO MORE SUCTION BLOCKING" in capital letters in one of the blogs. While I feel it can't fully be removed from a motion-capture based engine, I think and hope it will be far less prevalent than last year.

True but combine the facts that the people writing these previews (for the most part) spent very little time with the game...(example: OS preview written by a guy who played half a game) and the fact that all these previews sound similar...it's fair to conclude that at least on some level they're just relaying information given to them directly by EA devs. So the gap between what the previewers say and what the EA devs say isn't that far apart.

Also it's tough to pull too many examples since EA's blogs from last year seem to be down, but they have said they improved things that later turned out to not work. One example being the read option.

[ChiRis]

Excellent thread. The exact point I was trying to make in another thread.